Special Notice to Members: Articles of Incorporation Amendment.

Dear ASAP Members:

The DC nonprofit law is changing as of January 1 and could impact ASAP negatively if we do not take immediate action. The new law will require that a majority quorum is needed for voting on any matter. Since the ASAP bylaws or Articles of Incorporation do not speak to this issue, we rely on the D.C. law. However, for a membership that averages about 425, it is common for ASAP members that vote on bylaws amendments or elections to number between 20-75 votes cast. Clearly, this falls far below a majority quorum. Therefore we need to amend our Articles of Incorporation to speak to this issue and specify a quorum of 25 votes. If an organization's Articles or bylaws specify a quorum, that will supersede the D.C. law.

At our annual membership meeting on December 8, ASAP President Anne Weismann announced our course of action and asked for the members’ support. Basically, the Board has unanimously supported putting forth the proposed amendment to the Articles of Incorporation to the membership.

We will hold a special meeting via conference call on December 22 at 2:00 pm. You can call in, submit a proxy form or do both. We need 10% of the proxies returned. The call in number is 800-244-9194 and your pass code is 589862.

We understand that this a difficult time with the holidays and vacations, but time is a factor. As always, we encourage you to participate and make your voice be heard.

Two items are attached: 1) the "legalese" version of the notice, and 2) the member proxy form, both prepared by ASAP's attorney.

We thank you for your participation as we seek to keep ASAP operations running smoothly and in accordance with what is realistic for this organization. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at asap@bostrom.com or 202-712-9054.

Sincerely,

Claire Shanley, Executive Director